Turning a lifetime of savings into a paycheck that lasts.
You spent forty years saving. Now the question is whether that savings will last the rest of your life, and what happens to your income if markets don't cooperate. Retirement income planning is the anchor of your whole plan.
The four percent rule was never a real plan.
Most retirees approach retirement with a pile of savings and a rough idea that four percent a year will work. But four percent a year assumes markets cooperate, taxes stay predictable, spending stays flat, and you get lucky with the sequence of returns. That's a lot of assumptions stacked on top of each other.
What retirees actually want is simpler: a plan that turns what they've saved into reliable monthly income, one that holds up whether markets cooperate or not.
The scope, specifically.
The concrete work included in the Retirement Income pillar. Scannable for the evaluator, substantive for the reader who wants detail.
Build the income plan.
A complete month-by-month, year-by-year income strategy across your full retirement, not a projection, a plan.
Social Security timing.
We model the exact year and month to claim, factoring spousal benefits, tax brackets, and longevity scenarios, the right answer can be worth six figures over retirement.
Withdrawal sequencing.
Which accounts do you draw from first, and in what order? We sequence withdrawals to minimize lifetime taxes, not just this year's.
A reliable income floor.
A baseline of income that doesn't depend on what the market does next, so market volatility affects your portfolio, not your paycheck. Your essential expenses stay covered in every scenario we model, including the bad ones.
Stress-testing the plan.
We test your plan against multiple market environments, including a 2008-style drop, so you know it holds up in the markets you might actually retire into, not just the ones we hope for.
Annual re-planning.
Your income plan is reviewed every year, and re-built whenever life, markets, or tax law change meaningfully. The plan stays current with the retirement you're actually living.
Income is the anchor. Every other pillar flows from it.
Every decision in tax planning, wealth management, estate, and Medicare flows from how you turn savings into reliable income. Get the income plan right and the other four pillars have the flexibility they need. Get it wrong and no amount of investment performance will rescue it.
Drives the allocation
The income plan sets what the portfolio actually needs to do. Decumulation-stage allocation is built around the income schedule, not a generic target.
Shapes the brackets
Withdrawal ordering and Social Security timing determine your taxable income for decades. Tax strategy is downstream of income design.
Sets what's left
How much you spend, from which accounts, in which years, decides what passes to heirs and in what form. Estate planning follows the income plan.
Controls IRMAA
Your income from two years prior sets your Medicare premiums. Income planning directly controls what Medicare costs you for life.
Real questions we answer with real plans.
A sample of the conversations clients have with us under this pillar. Not hypothetical, the actual shape of the work.
Concrete outcomes, not a sales sheet.
- How much monthly income you can count on, regardless of market conditions.
- Which accounts to draw from, in what order, and when.
- When to start Social Security and why.
- How your income holds up if there's a bear market in years one, two, or three.
- What changes (and what doesn't) as your life changes.